Football Preview: Upper St. Clair Panthers vs. Moon Area Tigers
Upper St. Clair has been on the road for two straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. A feisty cat fight will be fought when Panthers challenges the Moon Area Tigers at 7:00 p.m. Upper St. Clair's defense has only allowed ten points per game this season, so Moon Area's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Upper St. Clair is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Pennsylvania's top teams: Bethel Park, who was ranked tenth in their home state at the time (Upper St. Clair was ranked third). Upper St. Clair managed a 14-10 victory over Bethel Park on Friday. The 14-point effort marked the Panthers' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
The critical scores for Upper St. Clair came from Charlie Bywalski and Julian Dahlem.
Upper St. Clair was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 222 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 151 rushing yards in 13 consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Moon Area). They blew past Baldwin 55-26 on the road on Friday. Considering the Tigers have won three games by more than 20 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Upper St. Clair pushed their record up to 8-0 with the win, which was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Moon Area, the victory got them back to even at 4-4.
Upper St. Clair barely slipped by Moon Area in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, winning 43-42. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Moon Area's Josh Bladel, who rushed for 68 yards and two touchdowns, and also threw for 25 yards and a touchdown. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Upper St. Clair to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
